Police confiscate weapons, arrest woman on gun charges

Lewis allegedly fired, may have owned gun despite revoked FOID card

A rural Morris woman may never regain possession of her firearms following her arrest by Grundy County Sheriff’s deputies late Wednesday.

Valerie J. Lewis, 52, who resides at the Michael Brewer home at 5830 E. Muskie Trail in Goose Lake, is free today after posting $10,000 cash bond on two weapons charges.

Lewis, who is on probation for a previous offense, was charged by deputies with possession of a firearm on a revoked Firearm Owner’s Identification card, and possession of a firearm without a required FOID card.

The first charge is a Class 3 felony, and the second a Class A misdemeanor.

The incident began when Brewer was reported by neighbors to be firing weapons into the tree line at the back of his property on Thursday, Aug. 18, Chief Deputy Sheriff Kevin Callahan said Friday.

Upon investigating, deputies found both Brewer and Lewis were intoxicated. After deputies ascertained nothing further was wrong, they instructed Brewer to stop shooting for the day.

Deputies later found that Lewis also had been firing a 9 mm weapon, and that a video of the incident existed.

As a result, they obtained on Wednesday through the Grundy County State’s Attorney’s office an arrest warrant for Lewis, along with permission to remove the guns from the home.

In the process, they found that Brewer’s FOID also was revoked for a previous conviction in DuPage County.

Numerous weapons were confiscated, including multiple handguns and a rifle, along with about 500 rounds of ammunition and several .50 caliber rounds.

Most of the weapons belonged to Brewer, although one might have belonged to Lewis, Callahan said.

“We asked the court to let us take them all,” he noted.

Callahan said it is unlikely either Brewer or Lewis will be able to regain possession of the weapons because of the previous convictions.

He said Lewis’s FOID was revoked for a previous incident of driving under the influence of alcohol, the reason for her probation.

She is to appear in court at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12, on the two new charges.